Massive Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 Kenzan Impressions

Wow, I finally dragged myself away from the actual game to post. This game is fricking awesome. I’m on the 8th chapter of … however many there are, but I’m 20 hours strong!

Let’s see how I can break this down.

Graphics: It’s hit or miss, but I’d say there are many more hits than misses here. Some areas look breathtaking. Particularly, interiors of buildings are AMAZINGLY detailed. Texturezilla and all that. Others look like high res last gen, such as some of the outside area ground textures. But when I entered the main city in the game, and saw like, 30+ people on the screen, all reasonably detailed and well animated (interacting with eachother on the street), I was pretty blown away.

Couple this with the fact that the game is so damn colorful. This is the opposite of most games you’re playing recently. There are pinks and reds and greens in the main city, beautiful green landscapes covered with red leaves, the skies are a clear blue… the game just looks stunning. There’s one boss battle that takes place on the shore of a river at sunset… jaw dropping lighting and color. Another battle that takes place in a burning building is pretty stunning.

Cutscenes: There are 2 types of story cutscenes in this game. The first type is your standard cutscene, of which there are very many. These are all of excellent quality. Character animation, facial movement, eye movement, everything is very nice looking. The cinematography and voice work is great too.
The second type of cutscene is like a cross between a normal cutscene and a non voiced text sequence. As Srider mentioned, it’s similar to Shenmue, as the camera moves around the characters as they stay still and deliver voiced lines. You can click R3 to have the scenes forward automatically, or you can press X after each line is done. In these cutscenes there is mouth and facial animation, and some nodding and shaking of heads, but rarely is there any real eye or body animation. In all cutscenes, character face models are incredibly detailed. I think that the cutscenes with limited animation are a good way to put a lot of voicework into the game without burdening the animators with a gazillion talking head animations, but I wish that the talking in the second type of cutscene was more animated, like Mass Effect. But overall the game’s story is represented very well with these scenes.

Gameplay: Wow, there’s a lot of stuff, so I’ll break it down some more.

1. Battle: Not bad when you start, although you feel limited. But oh is the tunnel deep in this one. You can upgrade your swords with materials that you find or receive from winning fights. You can also buy a variety of non-sword weapons, but they’re not as useful as your main weapons, from what I’ve seen. There are four different main fighting styles in the game: Single Sword (All around great), Dual Sword (Good for multiple enemies with dual attacks), Hand to Hand (useful in many different situations and you’re forced to use it sometimes), and “Huge Sword” (great for blasting through obstacles, blocking bullets and smashing tightly packed groups of enemies, but kills your mobility). You’ll get into combat in various situations in the game, and there is a transition between non-combat mode and combat mode, which is a short load. There are no random battles, but random thugs will start a fight with you if you get close (you have a chance to run). Some mission specific larger fights throw a ton of bad guys at you as you navigate an environment (burning building, etc.). And these mission specific fights typically have special QTE where you have to press a button on the screen to dodge or attack, but it’s not overdone at all.

The general combat is actually quite deep, deeper than Yakuza 1 or 2. Once you start learning abilities from animals and various dojos in the game, you have the ability to flexibly attack your enemies from any distance, while maintaining a balanced defense. This is no Ninja Gaiden/DMC, so there are no 100 hit combos, but the combat is quite entertaining. Building up heat quickly with quick, efficient combos, and then wasting enemies with awesome over the top sword moves is really fun, and this is on top of picking up objects in the environment and smashing people with them in various painful ways. The combat really opens up once you get access to the dojos and learn some moves though.

2. Adventure/Quests: Really well organized lists help you keep track of all your quests. There is a ton of little tasks you can do for XP.

3. Minigames: There’s a TON of stuff. Gambling of various kinds, mahjong, japanese chess, horse riding archery, combat target practice, TURTLE raising and racing (you get a cage and you them, they have fricking STATS!)… honestly I’ve barely scratched the surface. That’s not to mention the crazy brothels in the game with girls that you have to please. There is just so damn much. It’s overwhelming and awesome at the same time.

Sound/Music: Other than the generic battle theme, the soundtrack is pretty great. SFX are good too.

Story: Totally awesome if you’re into Japan or samurai or ninja or whatever. My biggest worry about this game is that the story and environment assumes that you’re Japanese, and there are a lot of old words referenced in conversations (don’t worry, there’s a dictionary for old words). The thing is that there’s no real English equivalent for most of these, so I think localization will be quite difficult. Also, I feel like this game is a bit “Japanese” in it’s content, and that people in the US just wouldn’t find the environment that interesting. It’s not that you have to know Japanese history to play the game, but having an interest Japan makes the game easier to enjoy, for sure. So far there have been plenty of twists and turns and it’s keeping me hooked

I feel like I could go on and on about the game. The environments are extremely varied and interesting, much better than the old game. You have 2 towns with a lot of shops and such (so far), but then there are a bunch of natural areas and smaller communities you can visit for specific items or quests. There’s a taxi service to take you around too. There’s just so much content, it’s overwhelmingly awesome. So much stuff to do in each area, everywhere you turn there’s a sidequest (neatly organized in your menu). The map is easy to read. Tons of items and food and equipment…. aaaaaah.

Truly awesome game. Awesome game. One of the best games for the PS3. I hope it comes here with an excellent localization.

NEOGAF